Panthers spoil Wolves’ homecoming with win

PEARCY — Siloam Springs appears to have turned the corner under firstyear coach Brandon Craig, and the Panthers showed it Friday with a big road win.

The Panthers held Lake Hamilton’s rushing attack to 100 yards less than its season average, and Siloam Springs enjoyed a balanced offensive attack to hand the Wolves a 21-14 homecoming loss at Wolf Stadium.

The Panthers improved to 4-3 overall and 2-2 in the 6A-West Conference, while Lake Hamilton dropped to 4-3 and 1-3.

“Overall I’m really pleased with our kids’ effort,” said Craig. “We had a great goalline stand down there [in the fourth quarter]. [We showed] some toughness, resolve, grit, some things we maybe hadn’t had before and it was just nice to see our kids compete at that level.”

Siloam Springs stopped Lake Hamilton on the game’s opening drive and then got the ball and scored to go up 7-0. Kaiden Thrailkill ran for a 24-yard touchdown with 8 minutes, 33 seconds left in the first quarter for what would be the only touchdown of the first half.

The Panthers scored on the opening drive of the second half. Landon Ellis hit Primo Agbehi for a 56-yard touchdown to give the Panthers a 14-0 lead.

Lake Hamilton answered with a 66-yard touchdown run by Dealond Lewis, who finished with 12 carries for 128 yards.

Siloam Springs came back with a scoring drive to go up 21-7 in the third quarter when

Thrailkill scored from nine yards out.

Siloam Springs defense kept the game at 14 points early in the fourth with a goalline stand. Lake Hamilton did cut the deficit to 21-14 in the fourth quarter on a run by Layne Warrick with 4:11 to play.

The Wolves got the ball back with just more than a minute left in the fourth but turned the ball over on downs at the Siloam Springs 39.

The Wolves, who came into the game averaging 343 rushing yards per game, were held to 224. Siloam Springs paid close attention to Lake Hamilton running back Malik Brewer, who had 78 carries for 745 yards coming in for an average of 9.6 yards per carry. Brewer was held to just 53 yards on 22 carries.

“They like to run buck sweep, so we stacked the buck sweep side,” said Panthers linebacker Chase Chandler. “Our D-linemen really got up the field. We were trying to set the edges and let the rest of the defense rally. We did that repetitive throughout the first half.”

Meanwhile, Siloam Springs rushed for 155 yards in 36 carries, led by a 140-yard night by Thrailkill. Ellis completed 9 of 18 passes for 163 yards. Agbehi caught three passes for 113 yards.

“They just made more plays up front,” said Lake Hamilton coach Tommy Gilleran. “They whipped us up front and gave us more trouble.”